


Sparky and Vodka

by wimsicalpan



Category: Andromeda
Genre: F/M, Hacking, Hurt, POV Female Character, Romance, Slavery, Threats of Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-04-09
Updated: 2014-07-24
Packaged: 2018-01-18 17:28:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 9,045
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1436722
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wimsicalpan/pseuds/wimsicalpan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>My name’s Riley and I’m a human slave. I come from this little planet called Earth, never take a vacation there, and slavery was my only way off. Now, I took it upon myself to irritate my 'master's' as much as possible, you know, decrease my 'wantability' until eventually Dyson bought me. Anyway, let me tell you about how I met Seamus Zelazny Harper and how he inadvertently changed my life.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Is that a dataport?

**Author's Note:**

> Set at some point in season 2, after the episode Ouroboros. All I own is Riley and any other non-canon characters. Enjoy.

There’s some truth to the reputation these back water drifts gain. For example, take the two Nightsiders at the end of the bar. Right now, they’re squabbling about the worth of an abandoned smugglers ship and who had claims to it. In one corner of this small and busy bar is a group of Nietzscheans. They were too loud and drank far too much. Anybody could see the murderous looks growing in the Kalderans eyes the next table over. 

If a fist fight started, again, I was out of here. Everybody somehow got pulled into them unless you knew how to duck and weave. All I wanted to do was drink my beer in peace, enjoy my night off and forget about life for a little while. 

“So tell me,” I lifted my brown eyes to the mirrored panels behind the bar. The guy who had sat down in the vacant seat next to me and started to talk was a human with spiky blonde hair. Was that a dataport or a smudge on the mirror? “What’s a girl like you doing in a place like this?”

I couldn’t help the curve to the corner of my mouth and I turned in my seat to face him. He wasn’t half bad to look at, a little on the small and scrawny side, but who was I to judge? I made everybody look tall. “Drinking.” I took a sip and eyed the odd quirk of his mouth. It was a sly smile if ever I saw one and I let my own sly smile begin to grow. “Isn’t that obvious?”

He waved a dismissive hand at me and took a gulp from his drink. “Yeah, but in this place?”

I arched one brow and glanced over my shoulder at the room. “What’s wrong with this place?”

He pointed a finger at me. “You look as if you don’t belong here.”

I let out a laugh. I could see where this was going. Worse men had tried worse lines. The guy really needed to work on his lines. I gave him another look and noticed the side of his mouth smirking, his brows together, curious to what my response meant. If anybody didn’t fit in here if was him, but, I dropped my eyes down his almost clean red t-shirt. What that a grease stain? “Well,” I started and I no longer could contain my grin. I knew just how to play along. “Where would you say I do belong then?”

His brows jumped and I managed to contain my laughter by taking a gulp of my drink. I would need another one soon and I eyed this blonde haired stranger with curiosity. “Oh I could think of a few places.”

I wondered how much success, if any, he had with that kind of line and I shook my head with a wide smile, my eyes focused on the froth in my drink. “You need to work on your lines.”

“What?” His smile dropped away. “There is nothing wrong with my lines.”

“They’re corny.”

“Everybody likes corny.”

I raised my brows at that and shook my head, my grin still in place. I had to admit, there was a certain charm about him. “Sometimes it’s best to just start with your name.”

He stuck his hand out, big smile back in place. “Seamus Zelazny Harper.”

I took his hand and contained any questioning looks from my face. That was a mouthful and certainly not a common name, although, I could’ve sworn it sounded familiar. Earthly familiar. Seamus looked proud and I smiled politely, “Riley. Just Riley.”

“Well,” he said, smirk coming back into place, “Riley, Just Riley.” I grinned and the almost chuckle that left me made his smile grow. It was a smile of a confident man. He finished off his drink and said, “How about I buy you a drink? What’ll it be?”

I eyed my almost empty drink and nodded. There was no harm to letting him buy me a drink right? It was my night off to do whatever I wanted. “Sure thing Seamus,” he scrunched his face up ever so slightly that I was impressed I caught the look, but I ignored it. “Surprise me.”

That returned the smile to his face and he jumped off his seat. “One surprise, fantastic drink coming up.” 

I laughed as he walked to the end of the bar where the Chichin bartender stood. Maybe having company wasn’t such a bad idea and he seemed innocent enough. I watched him make an order and lean on the bar top as he waited for the drinks. And I couldn’t help but to let my eyes trail down. Hey, I know how to admire a man’s assets and if Seamus just had to lean over the bar in such a way… I bit down on the inside of my cheek as thoughts began to stir. I lifted my eyes away from his behind and almost jumped in my seat. He’d caught me checking him out. I turned to face the mirrored wall and pushed my drink into my face, finishing it off in three quick gulps. 

When he came back there was a knowing smirk on his face and that smirk? It was cute. In Seamus’ own way. Everybody had their own cute smile. “Enjoying the view?” he said.

He put a dark, bubbly substance down in front of me and I stared at it. My expression was caught somewhere between a smirk and curiosity as I answered him, “Yeah, I suppose. What is that?”

He sat back down and took a large helping of his own drink. “A surprise. Trust me, you’ll like it.” And he took another large helping of his drink. 

I turned sceptical eyes down to my drink and chewed on the inside of my cheek. It did not look inviting but it was a free drink and I never turned down a free drink. I grabbed the glass and decided to hell with it and took a sip. It was sweet, sticky, it burnt the back of my throat and marked a fiery path down to my stomach and there certainly was some kind of kick to it. I took another sip, to test my taste buds. A warmth had been started in the pits of my stomach and I found myself smiling. “Okay, I’ll bite. What is it?”

He laughed. “Told ya’ you’d like it. Sparky cola with a hint of vodka, or whatever passes for that around here.”

I smiled and took a gulp of the concoction. I’d heard of sparky cola, had even tried it as an alternative to coffee now and then, but I couldn’t stomach it the same way I could pure caffeine. But with vodka? Bring on the drinks! “Alright, Seamus,” I said.

He made another ‘almost face’ and held his hand up. “Okay, usually I ask people to call me Harper.”

“Usually?”

He grinned. “Usually, but you?” An awkward chuckle escaped him and I frowned. “I don’t know. It’s the way you say it.”

“Seamus?” He made another face and I grinned. At least that cleared that up. It wasn’t exactly a look of distaste, but it was certainly something. “As I was saying, I have to ask, where are you from? You don’t live here I can tell you that and that dataport,” I pointed a finger at his neck, “you do know how to use it right?” Some of the people I’d met got one installed because of the *idea* of what they could do. But those that could navigate the virtual reality matrix without any backfires, or with minimum damage, were few and far between. 

He waved a dismissive hand at me, “Of course I know how to use it.” 

I grinned. Just a touch of arrogance and a little offended I'd consider such a possibility. Seamus was fun to mess around with. I gave him a shrug and took another sip of my drink. I set the glass down and said, "I'm just saying, some people can't navigate VRM to save their life."

"Well I can," he took a helping of his drink, his brows furrowed and I waited for him to speak. It didn't take a genius to know that something was on his mind. "Why the interest?"

I let my smile remain as I tapped my fingers against the side of the glass. Because VRM's are so much better with two? Because I don't want you to be an idiot? A schmuck? "Just curious I guess." The vodka that was mixed into the Sparky was hitting the edges of my vision and I tried to eye the bottles behind the bar. Some of these drifts made their own, or bought the 'good stuff' that most people didn't know about. Had Seamus bought said drink? I grabbed my drink and turned to face this guy with spiky blonde hair. "Would you rather I called you Harper or Seamus?"

He smiled and said, "Harper."

I nodded and took a sip of my drink. "Tell me Harper," I grinned and turned to face him, "what's a guy like you doing in a place like this?"

He laughed and damn, I liked his laugh. "I got a couple days leave before we're gone again."

I raised my brows. I was only interested in one night and Harper was checking a lot of boxes it was usually hard for me to find. Smart? Check, at least, I hoped that that was what the dataport meant. Funny? Check. He did make me laugh. Cute? Yeah, my kind of cute. Human? Check, check, check. Not wholly interested in me for my body? Err. Okay, that one didn't necessarily *need* to be ticked. But he ticked enough and I threw back a good few mouthfuls. "Well, what do you say we ditch this place and go somewhere a little more... private?"

That got his attention and I grinned as he seemed flustered. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that that didn't happen often to him. I laughed and took another sip of my drink. "Sure," he said, "I'd, I'd love to." His smile returned and I grinned. I did like his quirky, cute little smile.


	2. Change of plans

I awoke with a slight ache at the base of my skull and a cotton filled mouth. I worked my mouth, to try to ease the dryness, when a body of warmth that wasn’t my own caught my attention. I jerked my head up and pried open tired eyes to see spiky blonde hair and I frowned. How could anybody’s hair keep its pose after a night of sleep?

I blinked my eyes open and moved to sit up; extracting what limbs I could from around Harper’s body. The guy sure did sprawl out when he slept.

Clothes. I needed clothes, and trying to get around his sprawled out body looked easier than it actually was. Part of me didn’t want to wake the guy. We’d left soon after I’d suggested leaving, but that hadn’t stopped us grabbing a few bottles of stuff on the way to my place and drinking them, or mixing them _then_ drinking them. That produced some weird, delicious and disgusting concoctions.

But I needed clothes and at some point, Harper needed to wake up. My eyes dropped to him and his data port caught my attention. That was another thing. He’d found my data port, an older version of his. That had been an interesting hour and I have to say, the guy knows his way around a data port.

  
I could feel my mouth twitch into a grin at the memories that started to appear. But I stuck a hand out and shook his shoulder. “Harper,” I said. He made a sound somewhere between a grunt and a snore and I just gave him a look. He rolled over and burrowed his face further into the pillows. “Harper.”

“Five more minutes,” he mumbled into the pillows. I shook my head and climbed over him. It was awkward and clumsy and I lost my gripping once to accidentally lean on his leg. Harper just groaned and pulled on his leg. I let him have it and finally landed on solid ground. There was a nice trail of garments leading the way towards the door and I dressed as I picked them up.

By the time I reached the door I was dressed and I had gathered Harper’s clothes up into one of my arms. I marched up to the bed and eyed the sleeping man once more. He looked so content that I almost felt bad for having to wake him up. But I had to. I had a ‘job’ to do and he needed to be gone by the time my ‘boss’ came around.

Speaking of work and bosses, I turned my head to the cluttered table that stood nearest to the bed. My eyes fell over the device I’d spent the past two days working on and I closed my eyes with a silent groan. My morning just got worse. I dropped the pile of clothes onto Harper and ignored his slurred words as he stirred into the land of the living. My hands sought the broken pieces that lay abandoned and I assessed the damage. An hour’s work just to test the parts and another hour to fix what damage had accidentally happened.

“What time is it?”

I turned my head to see blue eyes blink tiredly open as he simply held his clothes in his lap. He looked back up at me and I shook my head, and any thoughts of him back in bed, out of my head to look for a clock. There was one on my table and I lifted it up, “Nine twenty.”

He furrowed his brows and made a noise somewhere between a groan and a sigh. I closed my eyes and told myself to _not_ turn around and eye his naked chest which led to other naked areas. _  
_

_It was for one night. One night. No more._

“So you’re kicking me out?”

I shrugged and picked up a battered nano-welder. “Last night was fun Harper, but I still have work to do.”

He opened his mouth, his face screwed up into doubt before he said, “Right.” I gave him a look out of the corner of my eye, the corner of my mouth twisting into a smirk. Some people’s early morning, sleep deprived voices were to die for. His? Not quite to die for, but it was close. He yawned and I tried to keep a smile off of my face as he stretched. Then he was getting dressed and I busied myself with fixing a few broken wires and framework.

By the time he’d pulled his shoes on my eyes were fixed on the clock. Nine twenty seven. Eighteen minutes until my boss arrived. Eighteen minutes til I was roasted alive for not having the Footprint Nullification device finished. You can’t rush perfection, but try telling that to a human with a desire to pave a way in the world of thieving, lying and conning. A human who was going places mind you. With anger issues. Great.

“What’s that supposed to be?”

I shook my head and looked up at Harper. He was peering over my shoulder at the pieces within my hand and before I could answer he was already picking up one of the pieces. “Footprint Nullification device.”

“Oh yeah, you said something about this last night.”

“Yeah.”

“It err basically erases the footprint of the ship this things attached to right?”

I smiled. So he wasn’t just a pretty face. “Right. Only now I need to put it back together.” I grabbed the part out of his hands and sat it back down on the table. He was still eyeing it up with interest and I stood, putting myself between him and it. Pesky human engineers wanted to sink their teeth and hands into anything they could grab. Sorry Harper, this one’s mine. “Look, I’m sorry Harper but I’ve got a lot of work to do.”

There was a brief flicker of disappointment before he held his hands up. “I got a couple of beautiful ladies that’ll kill me if I don’t show up.”

I raised one brow. I couldn’t tell if he was lying, screwing around or telling the truth. “Right.”

We reached the door and I let Harper open it and exit. I stood in the doorway, watching him as he hesitated to walk away. “Can I call you?”

I raised both brows and opened my mouth. “Erm, I er,” it wasn’t something people often asked. “I, I guess so. Just, you know, don’t be surprised if you get a busy signal.” I quickly moved back inside to grab a spare flexi and I put my number into it before I handed it to him. “See you.”

“Bye Riley,” he said and he walked away with a hop in his steps. That man sure knew how to make a woman smile with his little, oddities.

I sighed, closed my door and snapped my attention to the clock. Nine thirty seven. Crap. It would take more than eight minutes to fix what I’d broken. I slinked back to my seat, picked up my nano-welder and a flexi before I started working once more.

Turns out I didn’t even get five minutes before my door was opened. I dropped the welder and the piece I’d been working on. Erick Dyson walked in like he owned the place, which wasn’t too far off the bat actually. What can I say? Slaves don’t make an awful lot of money. Almost none in fact.

“Riley,” he said. The door closed behind him, but only after his hired Cyborg mercenary stepped in. Mitch or something his name was, I couldn't remember, didn't care to. He stood to the side of the room, staring at me and I wanted to pull a face at him.

“Dyson,” I said back. I stood up and flicked my eyes from the table to Dyson, back and back again. Nobody called Dyson by his first name. Fact. It wasn’t the menacing look to his eyes or the scars across his arms, from tussles with Nietzscheans to brawls with Kalderan’s and Ogami. But it was the fact that he didn’t hesitate to kill people. Unless you were me and held some value. Even then, it was questionable whether or not today would be the day I died.

“You finished?”

I opened my mouth, eyed the pieces on the table and looked back up at him, “No. But I still have a few days left.”

Dark green eyes focused on me and I felt a shiver run down my spine. I swear looking into his eyes is like looking into a soulless pit of pain, misery and despair. He stepped into the room and I tried to take a step back, but my legs hit the bed. I settled for pulling the chair between us and he stopped just in front of it. There was a twitch of a smirk to his mouth and felt my heart drop. That usually wasn’t a good sign. A good day was one where he didn’t smile at all and nobody died. A bad day started out when he did smile. I hated those bad days. “There’s been a change of plan. Tomorrow we’ll be going after a High Guard ship.”

All fear drained itself to be replaced with curiosity. “High Guard? Since when was there _any_ High Guard ships? Didn’t they all like die in the Fall or something?”

His angry smile came back and so did my fear. “Not this one. It’s been around for a while and there are some very interested people.”

My curiosity got the better of me again. My hand started to ease its grip on the chair. “How interested?”

He pointed a finger at me and said, “You’ll get an extra ten percent.”

That was a lot. I liked a lot. A lot got me a lot. “Tomorrow?” My eyes moved back to the table, to the broken device and I nodded, my smile beginning to grow. “I can get that working.”

“And getting us onto the ship?”

“Two minutes with my eyes closed?”

“That’s what I like to hear.”

I let my smile grow and his mouth twitched again. My smile faltered. What was up with him? “Any idea on what kind of ship this is?”

“High Guard-”

“Type, design spec. There’s only so much I can prepare for going at this blind.” His eyes started to narrow but my need for information to do my part was outweighing that for concern over my safety. “Tell me you have some design specs or blueprints of any part of the ship. If not then I can’t guarantee that I’ll know what I’m doing. It’s all well and good saying High Guard ship, but each ship is different and unique in her own way. You help me to help you.”

There was a dangerous silence that filled air and I gulped as I realised that I’d interrupted him. Dead people interrupted. And I liked not being dead. “I’ll give you a name, the _Andromeda Ascendant._ That should be enough to get you started.”

He placed a hand on Mitch's shoulder as he moved towards the door and said, “You’ll have company.”  
  
“A babysitter? Really?”

Dyson snapped his head back to me and I felt the blood drain from my face. Some days I forget to use the verbal filter and other days, I just outright ignored it. “Is there a problem?”  
  
I stared at him, the merc, and shook my head, “Nope.”

“Good. Get to work. We move tomorrow at eight. You better be ready by then.” He kicked at an empty bottle of beer and threw it over his shoulder, “And clean this place up.”

I gave him an awkward smile as he left. With any luck he was going to find some poor sap to beat up, terrify or kill. At least, I hoped he was. Bad luck to the guy who Dyson does beat up, but I’d rather them then me.

Mitch looked at me, folded his arms over his chest and gave me a hard look before I sighed and sunk back into my chair, “I’m working,” I said.


	3. Hello Alex

It’s easy to work on your own. It’s easy that way to forget that somebody’s got your neck in a vice. But when you have somebody pacing around your room, watching your every move, your skin gets itchy and it becomes difficult to concentrate. I sighed and dropped the nano-welder. “Can you stop that?” 

“You’re supposed to be working.”  
  
I turned to stare at Mitch, “And you’re not supposed to be distracting. Pace somewhere else.” 

He narrowed his eyes at me and I flinched. Damn Cyborgs. I hated Cyborgs. “Get working.” 

“Then stop pacing.” 

I flinched again. He smiled darkly and I shuffled away from him. “Get to work, or I’ll call Dyson.” 

And how could I argue with that? I snorted and turned back to the pieces of metal and wires in my hands. “Right, cause even his mutt needs permission.” 

There was a growl and I froze. “I have permission just by-” 

The comm channel that sat just above the table beeped and I held a hand up to Mitch, “Hold that thought.” I answered the call and watched Harper’s face appear. “Harper?” 

“ _Riley_ ,” and his mouth moved into that odd little quirky line that I couldn’t help but to watch with fascination. I really did like his smile. “ _Just thought I’d give you a call, check in and ask you for drinks tonight before I gotta leave_.” 

“And I would love that.” 

“You don’t have the time,” Mitch said. 

I rolled my eyes and Harper’s eyes moved to look over my shoulder. “ _Who’s your friend_?” 

“Nobody.” Oops. Mitch growled and I swallowed a lump in my throat before I said, “I’ll be finished in a couple of hours. My boss will be happy and I’ll have some spare time.” Before Harper could say anything else Mitch’s hand appeared and turned the connection off. Rude much? 

Mitch said, “Work. You can talk to your lover later.” 

I scoffed. “He’s not my lover. Just some guy I met.” 

“Just get to work.” 

I shook my head, picked up my nano-welder and tapped at the comm channel. I sent a message to the number Harper had called from and turned the alert for his response off. The last thing I needed was an excuse for Mitch to test his strength. I keyed in a search through the drift’s archives for _Andromeda Ascendant_ and waited. Dozens of results came up and I scrolled through them, reading through each comment. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Noth- hold on. This one had prospect and I skimmed through the information until I came across the letters “XMC”. 

“Holy crap,” I said. “Dyson seriously wants to go after this?” 

“Is there a problem?” 

I turned to him, a grin on my face. “Nope. I like me a challenge.” I eyed the channel again. Oh this Andromeda was going to be a challenge alright. 

Okay so four hours passed, not two. But I had to make a hell of a lot of changes to the Footprint Nullification Device. Have you ever tried to make a ship invisible to a _warship?_ Didn’t think so! Anyway I put the finished thing down. It didn’t look too glamorous. It was more of a wild assortment of wires, chips, screws and data. But it was a beautiful piece of work. 

“Oi Mitch!” 

He growled. I ignored him. I knew it wasn’t his name. “What?” 

“I’m finished. Now, I’m gonna take the rest of the day off.” 

He appeared on the edge of my vision, his eyes looking over my work. “If Dyson okays it.” 

“Oh come on! I’ve finished it. I can hook it up in two minutes. Wire it into the ships systems in another three and we’re on our way. So, I get the night off.” 

Mitch leaned across me to tap at the comm channel. I rolled my eyes. Everything had to be okayed by Dyson. Ugh. Oh and look who Mitch had called, Dyson. I sighed and butted in before Mitch could say anything. “I’m finished, I get the night off.” 

Dyson completely ignored me to look at Mitch, _“Does it look finished?”_

The Cyborg’s eyes dropped to the device and he shrugged, “I guess.” 

I rolled my eyes. Being the only genius around had its downfalls. Nobody knew what the hell you were doing. “It’s finished. Hooking it up’ll take five minutes and then lift off, we’re on our way to a big score.” 

_“Alright. But you’re on the ship by eight and we take off within five minutes.”_

“Mitch can leave right?”

Dyson narrowed his eyes at me and through a screen, it didn’t have the same effect. He just nodded and I grinned. The channel cut out and I turned to Mitch with my grin. He only growled and slapped my shoulder with the back of his hand. “Ow! Was that necessary?” He didn’t say anything, not that I expected to say anything. Well, that was going to bruise later. I ever mention how much I hated cyborgs?

Once he was gone I turned the backlog of messages on the comm unit on and read the short message Harper had left. There was something weird about that guy, but weird I could deal with: _So, I was thinking we could go to that same place only this time you buy me a drink._ That would be difficult. We slaves didn’t get much and I had to try to think over my recent purchases. My balance wasn’t looking good. Ugh. I looked back at his message. _Unless you had something else in mind? We can talk about that later say around seven. I’ll see you there._

Man the guy was hopeful. But the smile on my face couldn’t agree with him any less. I will see you there, right after I do a little work of my own private nature.

Now that I was alone I had time to tweak a little experiment I’d been working on for ten years. Alex. Alex was an Artificial Intelligence core that I created ten years ago for company. Being alone and bossed around with only masters for company left a person lonely. It had taken months to scrape together the very bones of what I needed to make him. Ten years of being passed around and he still wasn’t quite finished. But, I didn’t know what finished was. 

I moved to my bed and reached underneath it for a small box. Inside was another clunky device, a data cable, a couple of flexi’s and a few other bits. I cleared a space on the table, sat the box down and pulled out everything. The box was thrown away and I turned the device around until I found the on button. A small hologram of a guy, only a few inches tall, appeared in green and black snow. His hair was short and dark, his features firm and his clothes were reminiscent of those we wore back on Earth. I was working on it. 

“Riley,” he said and he moved to sit himself on the edge of the desk, his feet hanging over the side, “what’s the occasion?” I tried to make him as close to human as possible, that way it always felt like I had company. 

“A few hours til I meet with a guy then go steal a ship tomorrow.” 

Alex laughed, “So the normal stuff then?” 

I nodded. I inserted a data cable into the side of Alex’s container, plugged the other end into a flexi and started reading the coding. “How you doing anyway? Still cranky?” 

Alex folded his arms over his chest, “How would you feel if you were stuffed in a box to do nothing but sleep? It’s like being dead.” 

“Technically you’re not alive.” 

There was a look coming from him. I knew there was. But I ignored it to tweak a few subroutines. “Say that again and I’ll kick your ass.” 

“Yeah, yeah,” I said, “keep talking little guy.” 

“You wait til I’m in something bigger, and better then that pile of crap you made.” 

I dropped the flexi to stare at him, open mouthed. “Crap? You realise you just called yourself crap.” 

“And I could’ve done a better job.” 

I rolled my eyes. Some days I wondered why I bothered. “Keep talking.”


	4. Another shade of shady

More time passed then I’d wanted but you can’t rush art. Or genius. Or mechanics. Or something. Alex put up a fit when I told him I needed to get going. “One of these days,” he’d started when I started shutting down maintenance codes, “you’ll thank me for being around. Those guys you find?” He shook his head, “I don’t see the point of it.” 

“Really? Plain and simple it’s satisfaction.” 

Alex sighed and I swear some days I regretted making him too human like. Oh nostalgia, you were going to be the death of me one day. “And one of these days that kind of behaviour is going to get you into some serious trouble. You remember Sam right?” 

I rolled my eyes at that. Sam was an almost genius with plenty of potential but a lot of shortcomings including being open to going against the rules of mechanics. He was something to look at and something else entirely. “So?” 

Alex gave me a condescending look, again, nostalgia, death. “You know what, whatever you get yourself into you can get yourself out of. I’m done.” 

I snorted. Done? “You’re never done.” 

“Shut up and shut me down.” I complied and shuffled him back into his box and underneath the bed. He might come in handy for the High Guard ship. Now all I had to do was meet Harper, drink, possibly have some fun and make sure I don’t sleep in. That would be a death sentence for sure. I frowned. That meant that our ‘fun’ would have to not include actual sleeping. I wondered if I could get one of those discount shady rooms for like, free. Some of those guys did owe me favours. And Dyson did own a couple of them, I think. Last time I checked he did. 

I decided to go along with it. Whatever happened tonight happened, and I gathered whatever money I had and left. 

When I arrived the bar was Busy with a capital B. The only reason I was able to find my spiky haired associate for the evening was because of his spiky blonde hair. How does a guy even do that to his hair? It was impressive. His seat at the bar looked awkward and squashed, which probably had something to do with the Nightsiders pressed in on one side, ignoring the fact that he was even there. It was kinda cute watching the man grow irritated by their ignorance, but I couldn’t stand to watch any longer. Anything could start a fight in this place and that was the last thing I wanted. 

“Harper,” I said as I slid into the space next to him. There wasn’t a seat free and the Chichin at my back would have to suffer an invasion to his space. 

The guys face lit up and the corner of his mouth got caught into that smirk that was his. “Riley, you know, for a moment there I’d thought you’d turn me down.” 

“Cute genius like you? Nah.” 

“Cute huh?” 

I grinned and did not miss the look on his face. “That’s what I said.” I looked at the busy bar and sighed, “You wanna get out of here?” 

That surprised the man as his eyebrows rose. “No build up? Teasing? Foreplay?” 

I snickered. “Somewhere quieter, plus I can get a lot more for a lot less.” 

“Well why didn’t you say so?” He turned and jumped out of his seat. “So, my lovely escort, where are we going?” 

I took him out of the bar and into the busy streets, my eyes already looking at the surrounding buildings. It took a few minutes of idle wandering before the little bar came into view. I knew the guy who owned it and he knew me well enough to open tabs for me. Kind of. Those tabs would be taken out of whatever little pay I received from any job, which is what happens when your boss has his hooks into almost everyone and everything. 

Oh well. I could worry about the payment later. I needed a Harper kick before I had to help steal a warship. That would be something awesome to add to my resume. “Here,” I said and I pulled him by his arm in the right direction. 

“What is this place?” 

“Somewhere quiet and out of the way.” And somewhere with an attached building full of rooms for ones hearts content and desires. 

“Looks shady.” 

“We’re on a drift. Drifts are always shady.” 

“But this is another shade of shady.” 

I rolled my eyes and pushed through the door. The bar tender, and Dyson’s friend, gave me a smile as I entered. The place was just as I thought it would be, quieter and a lot emptier. “Hey Kendrick.” 

“Riley,” he said and he turned his eyes to Harper who gave him a look back. “What’ll it be?” 

I turned to Harper, whose eyes were now assessing the place and I turned back to Kendrick and said, “Two beers.” 

Kendrick gave Harper another look before he grabbed a couple of bottles, pried the lids off and passed them over to me. I passed one to Harper and started towards one of the free tables. Harper was still eyeing Kendrick and I waited for him to stop. I did wonder if he was one of those paranoid people who questioned everything. “You bring a lot of guys back here?” 

I laughed and tipped my bottle in his direction, “Not usually.” I shuffled in my seat and took a sip of the beer. It wasn’t bad but it wasn’t the best either. Dyson must be slimming down my tab. “Just the smart ones.” 

His mouth curled itself into a grin and he said, “Not just smart, genius.” 

“You have yet to prove it me Harper.” 

He waved a hand at me, “When I get my chance you’ll be blown away. In fact, you’re gonna be so amazed that you’ll be begging me to show you more.” 

I couldn’t help the amused laugh. I really couldn’t. How does one guy make himself seem so adorable I’ll never know, but I’m pretty sure adorable wasn’t what he was going for. We slaves ended up with a skewed view on the world, so what? “I’m sure I will be.” 

“You’re looking at the man who’s created an android from an avatar, linked it into the artificial intelligence of the ship and gave it its very own personality and body.” 

I’m not sure my eyebrows could go any higher. But if he was telling the truth? I’d always wondered how to do that for Alex. Of course, firstly I needed to fix the bugs and glitches in his code and systems. “Seriously?”

“I,” he started, a heavy look in his eyes with an arrogant mouth that had me wanting to skip the drinks. Where did that look come from? “Seamus Harper, do not lie about my creations, my beauties.” 

“You gotta teach me that.” 

His face lit up at that and his grin widened, if that was possible. “You know what Riley? It would be my pleasure.” 

For the next few hours we talked shop. Literally. He told me about Quantum Quntiflop chips, special coding and patches and all sorts of things that did and didn’t make sense to me. He joked about me building my own android for an AI and I laughed, shrugging it off with an eye on Kendrick. The man would tell Dyson everything I did but I didn’t want to give him more than necessary. Besides, the less people that knew about Alex the better. He was my secret project and friend, sad I know, but what’s a girl to do when she only has passing strangers to take an interest in her for a few hours. 

I asked him where he’d learnt all of that stuff, about his ‘Machine turned flesh’ and he said something about schematics somewhere in ‘Rommie’s’ library, whoever that was. Harper liked her, that was obvious, but hey, I wanted him for one more night, no more and no less. 

The more he talked though the more I wanted to learn. He obviously had access to better material, had better materials and expenditure. I made do and learnt as I guessed, poking, prodding and messing around with new circuitry. What I would give for that library he mentioned.


	5. Morning bruises

I had to sneak out in the morning from Harper with a killer headache. At some point during the night I’d managed to set some kind of an alarm, which somehow didn’t wake the guy up. I had the heart to leave him a note as I dressed and left though. 

By seven thirty I was back at my place, grabbing at clean clothes, getting ready and making myself a nice refreshing coffee. Twenty minutes later and I left, two boxes in hand, in the direction of the docks. 

I was five minutes early and Dyson decided I deserved a smack around the head. Not the friendly, ‘You idiot’ slap, but a whole, ‘Brain rattling, teeth chattering’ smack. “I’m early!” 

“You’ll get a lot more if you don’t get your ass moving Riley,” he hissed at me.

“Jeez,” I gave him a look and scurried on board, “somebody’s grumpy this morning.” He slapped my head again and the two boxes in my hands almost slipped from my grasp. I managed to stop myself from saying anything again. I just glared at his back as he moved to the front of the small freighter, towards the cockpit. Something had shoved a stick up him and I was going to be on the end of it wasn’t I? 

Mitch shoved at my back as he passed and I glared at his back too. The engine itself was down a hatch just to the right and I slid down, settled both boxes on the floor and opened the first one. 

The Footprint Nullification device. One of my best devices to date, Alex excluded. For all the negatives of Dyson being in charge of this whole thing, there was one positive that I would never dwell on, I had the engine room all to myself. It didn’t matter that the room itself was small, the entire ship was small, but nobody really came in here, except Dyson and even he had to duck to reach some of the smaller spots. 

It took two minutes to hook the device up in all of the right places and four to make sure it worked, which it did of course. The second box I tucked away underneath one of the pipes. I moved back to the entrance to the engine room and popped my head up, “Ready to go.” 

“You’re running late.” 

I rolled my eyes at Dyson and ducked back into the room before _I_ could say something. The guy was asking me to say something and I did not want to go down that path. There was an upturned crate that I used as a seat and sat down, my back against the wall. We still had to clear the atmosphere, get far enough away from the drift’s sensors, activate the FND and wait. 

The _Andromeda Ascendant_. A Commonwealth, High Guard Warship. I was getting giddy thinking about it. Our usual heists had included freighters, cargo runners, small ships, nothing too hard. But a warship? That was another level, the biggest score yet. There wasn’t a lot on the specifics of the ship, such as how many it’s crewed by or what kind of internal defences it had, but any idiot could make an educated guess that there would be a whole load of defences and security measures. Which is where my second box came in.

With a grin I pulled the box onto my lap and started to lift the lid. Somebody jumping into the engine room stopped me going any further and I pushed the lid closed once more. Dyson. Great. It never bode well whenever he joined me in this cramped space. 

He ducked his head and moved to stand over me. The guy was impressively tall and in this small space he was only taller and bigger. He pressed one arm against the wall above my head and stared down at me.

“What?” I said. 

His eyes darkened a fraction and I kicked myself. “What’s in the box?” 

“Nothing.” I placed the box on the floor and looked up at him. “Just what the thing was in,” and I nodded to the FND attached to the engine. His head moved to eye it, then he was eyeing me. Whatever he wanted, I’d rather he discussed it sooner rather than later. 

“What are the rules?” 

I rolled my eyes with a scoff, “Like I don’t know them.” 

“Then tell me.” He clipped the side of my head and I swear I could feel a headache begin somewhere. 

“Do what you say, stay within the line of sight of somebody at all times, don’t talk to the other crew, don’t compromise the job.” 

He nodded. “And stick to the engineering room.” 

I looked at him. “Commonwealth ships are known for having their systems everywhere. Corridors, command deck, access tunnels. It’s a maze of wires, conduits and systems that aren’t localised to just the engine room.” 

The only thing I could hear was the sound of the engine working, being brought into life and powering the ship. Dyson’s eyes were dark and not for the first time I felt myself shiver with fear. He inched his head closer and I pulled mine back. His free hand appeared and snagged my chin with a tight grip. Was it possible to bruise somebody’s teeth from pinching their face? I guess I’d find out soon. 

“Are you finished talking back to me?” 

I considered answering back but with him so close and his hand already on my face, I didn’t want to chance any more bruises. And it was too early to be pissing Dyson off already. I nodded. 

He tightened his hold on my face before he shoved it away from him and I refrained from the urge to rub at my face. “The moment we’re on board you go straight to engineering. Do what you can from down there then you can work in the other areas of the ship.” 

“But what if-”

His hand found a spot across my jaw and throat. His thumb pressed itself into the spot just above my voice box. “Riley.” I made a noise somewhere at the back of my throat. “Shut up.” He bent his head close to mine again and in a low voice added, “If I hear one more word that isn’t related to you doing your job, if I hear you questioning your orders again…” He left the threat hanging and said, “Do I make myself clear?” 

I nodded and he jerked my head away again. “Good,” he said and he turned and left without another word. Did I ever mention how much I hated Dyson? Two words: Unnecessary violence.


	6. The Andromeda Ascendant

We waited. 

And waited. 

And waited.

Waited. More waiting. I was ready to fall asleep we were waiting that long. I’d even managed to make myself a makeshift bed with a few of the boxes that were in the small space. I’d just found the perfect position, my feet tucked up and my curled in on itself, when Dyson shouted down to me, “Ready the device.” 

I grumbled, threw my feet over the edge of the boxes and stood. All I needed to do was press a few buttons, turn a couple of dials and then all Dyson, or the pilot, needed to do was press another button and boom. We’d have ourselves a free for all, open docking bay doors. I hoped. I really hoped. It was now that I realised that I hadn’t tested that particular feature. Oops. 

With baited breath I waited, listening to the sounds of the ship for the familiar sounds of a rhythm I knew in my sleep. A push on the engines, the tiny, tiny airlock opening up, releasing a series of small devices that gave out some sort of false drone signal, the thump of the door closing again, the push on the engines away from the devices and the feel of the ship flying smoothly. 

“Riley?” Dyson said. 

I sighed. How hard was it to push a friggin’ button? I was up and out of the engine room in seconds, pushing past people and making my way onto the bridge. Dyson was there, his eyes glaring into me and I ignored him to press a button close to his head labelled FIRE. There was a shudder through the ship. “An untrained monkey coulda-” 

His hand, took a tight hold of my shoulder, fingers and thumb digging into muscles and bone. I was squirming within instant. “Watch your mouth mudfoot.”

“Yeah,” I managed, “I’ll try.” 

He growled at me and pushed me away. I fell into the wall and stared at him. “Get back down there,” he said, “and don’t do anything until we get on board.” 

I ground my teeth together and scowled. You know, it would be kinda easy for me to screw him over. Of course I’d need to take of his posse too. If I wasn't afraid that they or he wouldn’t kill me first. Emphasis on _kinda_. 

I perched myself on the ledge that led down into the engine room and waited, one hand pressed against the wall. It was a manner of seconds before I felt the touchdown of the ship against actual floor. I jumped down into the engine room and opened one of the boxes I’d been using as a bed. Inside was a personal tool belt and I slung it across my too-large cargo shorts. Then I was moving one of the boxes to the opening, climbing up into the main area of the ship and waiting for everybody else to move. 

Within seconds, after hooking up a data pad to the main controls system and I had the door to the hanger bay doing whatever I asked. But, I needed to work on cameras before they came back on. A nice little trick I installed into the FND, a small localised EMP that was directed to the bay that we were entering. It would shut down the cameras whilst we – _I_ worked my magic. 

It took a little bit more jiggling around in the systems, which isn’t helped when you have a six foot man breathing down your neck made out of more muscle than should be legal, not to mention that High Guard systems are a thing of genius. But so was I. I grinned to myself as I rerouted the information for the cameras and internal defences to come up as nothing but normal and opened the doors. 

Let me tell you something, the _Andromeda Ascendant_ is so much more beautiful up close and personal. I had to trace imaginary circuit lines with my hand along the walls just to not fall in love too quickly. It was clean, beautiful, magnificent, amazing, an engineer’s wet dream, and I had to help deliver it to some hick one galaxy over.

  
“Riley,” Dyson said and I pulled my hand back as if I’d been shocked. He pointed a hand down one corridor and Mitch grabbed my arm, turned me around, and started marching me down it. 

“I have legs you know.”

“The quicker we do this the better,” he said by way of reasoning.

“Well let go.” 

“I have orders.” 

I rolled my eyes. Cyborgs. Mechanised soldiers who like to follow rules and orders, if the money and people were right. I hated cyborgs. We managed to get down two corridors before a hologram appeared. In true cyborg fashion Mitch let go of me, grabbed his gun and fired. Did I mention the fact that I was surrounded by idiots? 

“Why can’t I detect you on my sensors?” I frowned at her. She was a cute faced hologram with short black hair and a red uniform with thick black stripes. I’d never seen anything like it before. 

“My bad?” I said. 

Mitch said, “Get rid of her.” 

I closed my eyes, released a quiet sigh, opened them again and turned to face the cyborg. “Let me go through a few concepts that are so simple even a three year old could understand them.” I ignored the murderous look in his eyes and moved towards the nearest control panel. “She, is a hologram. You only get holograms from A.I’s. In order for me to try to get around her, I have to go into the system itself.” I hooked up my data pad to the control panel and started fiddling around. An AI. Who’d have thought it? 

“Who are you people?” the hologram asked and I flicked my gaze up to see her fold her arms. 

“Shut up,” Mitch said. 

I gave him a look and shook my head as I started to scroll through the data. “Look Andromeda, I’d kill to get to know you some more, seriously.” There, a data stream that all I had to do was delete. Power would be lost to this section but it’d buy us some time. “But err, I got a boss who’d flay me alive-” 

“Stop talking and just get rid of her,” Mitch said. 

I sighed and deleted the data stream. The lights disappeared and we were left in the dark. “Happy?” 

He stared at me and grabbed his communicator, “Dyson we have a problem.” 

_“What’d Riley do?”_

“Hey!” 

Mitch ignored me to say, “The _Andromeda Ascendant_ has an AI system.”

There was the sound of somebody yelling something over the line, a mix of voices before Dyson said, “ _Get rid of it.”_

My heart sank. Get rid of a fully working, glitch free artificial intelligence? It felt like a betrayal of my soul. I couldn’t. Mitch grabbed my arm and moved me forward, shoving me along one corridor after another. I stopped and grabbed Mitch’s communicator, took a few steps away from him and started talking into it, “Dyson, come on. You don’t mean that.” 

“ _Riley, get rid of it. AI’s are never good news.”_

“Yeah, for people taking over ships.”

_“Get rid of it or I’ll get rid of you.”_

“But-”

" _Now!”_ I didn’t jump. Nope. Not an inch and definitely not a foot. Mitch yanked the communicator back and shoved his gun into my back none too kindly. There would be more bruises. 

Speaking of AI’s… the lights turned back on and the hologram appeared again. “Get off my ship,” she said. 

Mitch just glared at her and said, “This ship is ours.” 

For what it was worth the hologram just glared, her eyes narrowing and I have to admit, that look alone scared me. Her eyes turned to me and she said, “In time I will have control again. When I do I will vent whatever corridor, access tunnel or room you might try to hide in. I will watch as you suffocate, unable to scream as the oxygen is sucked out of the room you are in. You won’t have any last words and I will not grant you mercy. I _will_ watch you die if I have to. This is a warship, and you’ve just declared war.” Yep. I was scared.


End file.
